​(The following article was written by Rev. Tom Brock of pastorsstudy.org. You can follow Pastor Brock on Facebook - here and Twitter - here.)

The latest edition of Living Lutheran, the official magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, deals much with "environmental justice" and the dangers of global warming. One article quotes Ruth Ivory-Moore, ELCA program director for environment and corporate responsibility. Who knew the ELCA had such a position? The number of missionaries being sent out by the ELCA is down, but this environmental position has been created. Also in this issue is an article by Bishop Guy Erwin, the ELCA's gay bishop who has a "husband."

Perhaps the most troubling thing in this issue is ELCA head bishop Elizabeth Eaton's definition of the Gospel. This is the head bishop who told a Chicago newspaper that, if Hell exists, "I think it is empty." If that is true, then it makes sense that the ELCA is not sending out as many missionaries.​

Eaton's article talks about dangers to the environment, mentions Earth Day, and then she gives this disturbing definition of the Gospel:

"Here's the gospel. Human beings are part of the creation. Human beings are connected to everything in the cosmos. Human beings are connected to God. We are not doomed to alienation. That God is more present than we are to ourselves gives us a path to reconnect with God, each other and all of creation. The judgment is that we do not even perceive that the One who created all things is intimately present. The promise is that the One who created all things is intimately present. We--all created things--are family."

No, that is not the Gospel. The Apostle Paul defined the Gospel in I Corinthians 15:1-5: Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Paul doesn't say the Gospel is that "we are connected to the cosmos." Eaton's "gospel" in this article does not mention Jesus or the cross.

This is the strange, new world of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a denomination far removed from Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, but closely allied with liberal politics, the LGBT movement, and "environmental justice".

Eaton has rewritten John 1 in New Age language, because the actual text of John 1 has no place in the ELCA world. They can't have universalism and John 1 too. John 1 would lead them to preach judgment upon sin, but now without it, they can have judgment upon "not perceiving" = thoughtcrime.

The very sad irony is, it is hard to find a denomination LESS connected with God, Christianity, even common decency, than the ELCA.

And finally, dear reader, please ask yourself this question: Isn't it time to connect with Bible-believing Christians?
You have nothing to lose but the lies.

". . . Writing in Christianity Today, [Robert] Benne argued that his [ELCA] denomination had abandoned the Gospel for a social gospel. 'The liberating movements fueled by militant feminism, multiculturalism, anti-racism, anti-heterosexism, anti-imperialism, and now ecologism have been moved to the center while the classic gospel and its missional imperatives have been pushed to the periphery. . . .'

". . . As Randall C. Zachman documents in his important work, The Assurance of Faith: Conscience in the Theology of Martin Luther and John Calvin, Luther was convinced that the conscience uncorrected by Scripture would lead to 'the idolatrous religion of conscience.'

"In Luther's own words: 'God wants our conscience to be certain and sure that it is pleasing to Him. This cannot be done if the conscience is led by its own feelings, but only if it relies on the Word of God.'

"Thus, the ELCA's new principle of 'bound-conscience' actually embraces and leads to what Martin Luther most feared -- a burlesque of conflicting consciences without accountability to the Scriptures.

"The idea of a bound conscience is deadly dangerous unless the conscience is bound by the Word of God. Those who would claim a bound conscience but pervert, deny, subvert, or relativize the Word may indeed be bound by conscience. But a conscience bound by anything other than the Word of God is a conscience given over to idolatry.

"This is a Lutheran lesson we all desperately need to learn. And Martin Luther himself deserves the last word:
'It is the nature of all hypocrites and false prophets to create a conscience where there is none, and to cause conscience to disappear where it does exist.'"

Reply

Debi

4/13/2019 11:39:33 am

Your last sentence, the Luther quote really describes the ELCA stand on the new Abortion laws. The ones that allow you to murder your child @ 36 weeks. They have NO statement on it.

Reply

Bryan

4/12/2019 05:41:03 pm

The words of this wicked woman will sadly sound sweet to many. She's nothing more than a practiced bamboozler plain and simple.

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George Rahn

4/13/2019 01:29:03 pm

Eaton's promise of God is actually a threat in that God's judgment on us for not recognizing this gospel is factually real in the confusion humans create among themselves as their opinions obfuscate more than make clear. Only in Christ crucified are we delivered from this obfuscation which is another way of saying God's wrath against sin: see Romans 1. God without Christ is a the God of wrath/obfuscation.

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Kenneth Howes

4/13/2019 07:00:18 pm

This all goes back to a failure in the seminaries to insist on the authority and reliability of Scripture. Martin Luther wrote, "Look in the Scriptures; they will not lie to you," and "You and I may lie or deceive, but God can neither lie nor deceive. The early Anglican divine Richard Hooker was even blunter: "God doth not lie."

All the rest follows from this. If there is anything in Scripture that is not the Word of God, then it becomes guesswork as to what is, and the guess will always be whatever the academic and social fashion of the day is.

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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. ​1 Thessalonians 5:21

Dan Skogen

Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.

If you have been helped and blessed by Exposing the ELCA's ministry, please help us continue to proclaim the truth of God's Word to ELCA members who need to hear it.